88 Ford Festiva HIGH IDLE/CATAYLIC CONVERTER PROBLEM

[MERTOMAS]

On my 88 Ford Festiva..at times the idle goes UP from normal to High for several seconds and then goes Down when its warmed up..Had it happened when I was getting the car smogged...ANOTHER ISSUE is that I went to a repair person who also does smog checking..The man said that there has to be a metal or rubber hose connection from the air cleaner/intake position to the catalytic convertor.I told Him that there's never been such since I had the car.What say You folks out there..THANKS
TOMAS

[WmWatt]

Do you mean the engine revs high when started and comes down when warmed up? That would be the automatic choke. Tapping on teh gas pedal should release the choke and bring the revs down to normal. It does that so the engine doesn't stall when starting.
On the driver's side of the air filtre housing is white metal box with two large diameter rubber hoses coming out of it which Ford calls the pulse air system.

[MERTOMAS]

No The car is already warm..when the up and down motion happens..You mentioned about the pulse air system..are both tubes are used ..with mine the second one is tied to the exhaust system;the first one is plugged with a cap

[WmWatt]

I can't remember exactly what the pulse air system does but I once looed it up on Google so the explination should still be there.
Usual other low cost things to try are examing all vacuum hoses, wiggling hoses and connections while engine is running, and misting hoses to see if engine bogs due to ingestion of moisture.

[MERTOMAS]

Thanks...I will check it out..Hard to smog this car in Cali